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Spotify finally brings its free, shuffle mode to Windows Phone

Music streaming service Spotify is playing catch-up with its Windows Phone app, finally making it free on the platform after unveiling a free, ad-supported and shuffle-mode which came to iOS and Android earlier this year.

From today, Windows Phone 8 and 8.1 users are getting an update for Spotify that lets you shuffle your own music, all the playlists you’ve created and playlists from people you follow. You can also shuffle an artist’s entire catalog – though that means you won’t be able to dig down into individual albums specifically. You can also access ‘Browse’ on Spotify for playlists that the service created for different moods.

Naturally, there will be ads included in the free service, as is the case with all of Spotify’s free products. Those who want ad-free access to their music and syncing of playlists for use in offline mode can pay for a subscription in the form of Spotify Premium.

Along with the free version, Spotify’s Windows Phone app is also getting a series of improvements, including better search results and easier browsing of your favorite artists and related artists.

Making Spotify available for free on a greater array of devices helps to get the music streaming service into the hands of more listeners. In May, Spotify announced that it hit a new milestone of 10 million paying subscribers and 40 million active users across the world, since its launch six years ago in 2008.